TOPS

Another early morning but so worth it. Today we had a demonstration from the TOPS canine division showing us the dogs searching for drugs, and a demo of the dogs in attack mode too. (I wouldn't mess with these beasts, they are pretty vicious and found every drug planted so its lose lose naughty people!) It was Mary's birthday today, 21 again! and also changeover day from our host families so we moved up to Crystal Lake now.

I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all our hosts for the last week, we have had a wonderful time and we look forward to seeing you all again.

Kids With Guns

Well it had to happen, the GSE Team finally were allowed to a police range. the place - Buffalo Grove PD, the time - well it was early & its the excuse we are all using if any of our shots missed the target! It's now I realise I only have 1 pic on my camera of us at the range...and its of me looking very american (both gun & gut!)

The Fireboat

In addition to our busy morning, we spent the afternoon visiting the Fireboat on Lake Michigan. Looks like a pretty good job if you enjoy fishing, but we reckon it could be pretty long shifts otherwise! We also saw the OEM centre, which is also home to the 911 dispatch for Chicago. Its pretty big & busy too, as you can imagine. That evening was the first GSE alumni meeting which had a range of past GSE teams who all said the same theing - GSE is GREAT, get your names down for furture visits!

Fireman Sam....I Mean Roger!!

Finally the GSE team have found their way out of the local pubs & are back to blogging duties!!! We went to the Chicago Fire Training Academy today and were given a fantastic tour by our guide John. We saw a number of the training facilities, including the smoke house and where it is rumoured that the Chicago fire started. After the academy, we went to Firehouse 42 inside the Loop where Roger felt the need to dress up (Must be the nightclub dancing Rog....sure it wasn't as a stripper??) Then lunch at Portillos - a Chicago institution so we are told, Italian Beef & Sausage was the order of the day.

Marge, Martha, Marcia

Well it is Glenview but it isn't the Fire Department. Here we are stood in the ER Ambulance Bay at Glenview Hospital.
The three ladies above delivered an interesting and broad presentation on Emergency Preparedness within the Hospital. Discussions included the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS, of medical supplies) and Pandemic Flu. There was a breakdown of the structures they fit within at a local level, state wide and nationally.
Marge, Martha and Marcia had collective responsibility spanning from the overall hospital preparedness, liaison with partners (inc training and exercising) and of course management of the ER. There was no George Clooney in this one but 3 very knowledgeable ladies. We hope to send them some info on cascade messaging via SMS, Email and new technologies as they embark on this. They used high technology dummies to test med students. They also ran a major exercise involving mass casualties and self presenters... something we are all too aware may occur in a CBRN type incident. Again, lots more than what we have noted but drop us an email if you want to know more.

Hostess with the mostest

A big thanks from Roger to his GSE Family in week 1. Mark, Terry and Family.
The team will surely be adding their own thank yous to everyone including the drivers, families, and Denny who has been our rock.... taking us to cool places together with Mark.

Cheers guys!

Couldn't organise a....... in a brewery

Enjoying our meal with St Charles and Batavia Rotary Club

Here the team enjoy a bit of R&R spending the evening at Paytons Roundhouse.

Micro brewery fanatics form an orderly queue... chocolate beer, pizza beer. This was a good evening. We also met up with some oldfriends and were winded and dined by the hospitable St Charles Rotary Club. They shouted a lavish meal and some of the team partied until the early hours to a live band. A magician got us in for free saving 60 dollars. good man.

Chicago Police Department

Chicago PD kindly gave a presentation on CAPS - Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy. In a nutshell it started 14 years ago. The Police engage with the community at meetings where people identify what the key problems are in their areas are. The Police 'beat managers' then identify strategies to tackle these issues. This of course means a bottom up approach. If you want results check this.... 40% reduction in murder rates. Year on year reductions in overall crime whilst the rest of the countries rates head up. We should be doing this. Our own government is slowly realising that national targets don't achieve the best results. One size does not fit all. If you want to know more about CAPS get in touch. It is truly amazing. Oh... they also stuffed us up with Krispy Kreme donuts. Now that's hospitality.
The Sears Tower.

Air time

In the back ground you can see the Sears Tower. This statue is of Michael Jordan. Below is the stadium where the Bulls play basketball... this evening was an ice hockey game. The Security Officer kindly gave us a whistlestop tour.

Preparing for the sales...

Nadia making the most of the FBI kit. We have a convert...

FBI

The visit to the FBI proved very interesting with a tour of the facility. We saw the CSI dept, gun vault and had a presentation on Anti-Terrorism. Some serious debate ensued and a number of controversial subjects were debated including Iraq.

We had an opportunity to tote some guns in the vault. Gun of choice was the M4 Assault Rifle. A shorter version of the legendary M16. A favourite of many armed forces and FBI Agents.

David toting the M4 Assault Rifle and below Roger continues his new found passion for big boys toys.

Home on the range

The 9mm Glock allowed me to be far more accurate... the Kimber 45 caliber had more of a kick and even with a laser sight made for tough sharp shooting. It's scarily easy to make holes in things. Gang style shooting with the pistol held sideways is actually stupid... it kicks out of your hands and ends up on the floor. Fortunately this means gang members are usually inaccurate when taking on enemies... and the Police.

Super Sharp Shooter

Roger enjoys firing semi-automatic hand guns including a Glock 9mm, Kimber 1911 45 Caliber and another one, the name of which escpaes me... laser sights, the works. Nothing better after a hard days work....

The Mexican

Roger enjoys some fine cop hospitality in a local Mexican joint whilst on a break from Patrol. Pictured left is Matt, who drives a patrol vehicle specialising in K-9, Bomb detection and Gun searches using K9. Marshall, Matt's dog was in the vehicke whilst we got some good tacos. Marshall can sniff out guns if recently fired. Tobacco smoke seriously affects his ability to sniff - a good reason for any of you to quit if you want to detect guns and bombs!

To the right is Deputy Steve, later Roger's best friend when he and Matt sorted some time on the firing range.

Ridealongs - COPS!
This was an excellent opportunity to go out on ridealongs with the countries finest. Here are a few pictures of Roger's ridealong with Kane County Sheriff's Department.
Along the way he pulled over a wanted man for Aggravated Assault and Battery with a weapon, drug dealing gang members, sniffer dogs searching out a gun stash. Amongst other things. Drove around gang areas including the LAtin Kings, Mafia Disciples and the Latin Eagles. Patrolled areas known as 'sh*t boxes' - places where gang bangers dump bodies and do dark deeds.

The last few days.....mayhem!

Fermi Lab -

Fermilab's Tevatron is a landmark particle accelerator; in fact, at 6.28 kilometers in circumference, it is the world's highest energy particle accelerator. The four-mile-long Tevatron with its superconducting magnets is the most powerful particle accelerator in the world. Traveling at almost the speed of light, protons and antiprotons circle the Tevatron in opposite directions. Physicists co-ordinate the beams so that they collide at the centers of two 5,000-ton detectors DZero and CDF inside the Tevatron tunnel at energies of 2 trillion electron volts (TeV), revealing the conditions of matter in the early universe and its structure at the smallest scale.

A car park - but it looks kinda cool

It was a whistlestop tour at Fermi Lab - a huge facility and very imposing on the landscape.

Kane County Office of Emergency Management

Here we met Don, Director of EM for Kane County and located next to the county jail, sheriff's department and despatch control. There were many similarities in relation to funding issues, resources and response arrangements. One thing is very clear. We are years behind in the UK in respect of community engagement and making the mnost of voluntary organisations. In Kane County it is a requirement that all staff are drafted into EM response as and when necessary., No choices, no discussions, you do it full stop. Refreshing to say the least.

Here Keith is shown the comms systems and live data available to the OEM.

Next stop will be: Kane County Office of Emergency Management

Starved Rock

As we were in the area we took a visit out to starved rock... The clue is in the name. Some North American indians starved to death an enemy tribe in revenge for killing their Chief, Pontiac. Landscape amazing.

Most appropriately we experienced some excellent thunder and lightning early this AM.

Pot roast and sweet potato fries, key lime pie. All winners today.

Most of all a huge thanks to Utica FD for all the information and Reports we came away with.

Utica Fire Department - Tornado 2004

Utica Fire Department and Emergency Management delivered an excellent presentation detailing their response to the 2004 Tornado that touched down in Utica reuslting in 8 fatalities. The team discussed Hurricane Katrina which Utica deployed personnel to.. despite the 1000mile drive! A number of interesting points raised included the age old issue of communications between agencies, coordination of voluntary organisations and the difficulties that can be encountered between the different structures here in the US. Just as the group were finishing up with a tour of the Tornado Shelter and the vehicle shop, the hosts were called out to a big rig wreck. I should add.... they operate in a way similar to our Retained Fire Service... so minutes later from across Kane County about 10 volunteers showed up with blue lights flashing. A quick response and an essential service in a country of such great expanse.

A few local old wives tails were blown out of the water... tornados don't cross rivers and tornados don't dip into river valleys. It did here with devastating consequences but 7 people were rescued that may have perished.

Tri-City Presentation

After a gruelling 16hrs getting to Chicago o'Hare we met our host families to rest up for a few hours before our presentation to the Tri-City Rotary Clubs hosted by Geneva Club at 7AM.